The Most Interesting Fan Art in Golf

England's James Howe made this spray painting of Miguel Angel Jimenez as a gift for his girlfriend. (Courtesy James Howe)

Despite what you might think, James Howe is not a professional artist. Actually, he’s not really into golf, either.

In fact, Howe, a 34-year-old from Skegness, England, is a construction worker who specializes in fitting suspended ceilings. That’s how he tore his ACL two years ago and became interested in spray painting in the first place.

“I was off work for some time and didn’t really have a lot to do,” Howe said. “I had a print by Banksy (the famous British street artist) on my wall and thought that I’d love to be able to do that.”

As simple as that, Howe went out, bought a few cans of paint and started experimenting. Despite having no artistic background, he started to make elaborate spray paintings on canvas dedicated to his love for musicians such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. Soon after, he started moving toward other mediums that would give him a unique look.

That’s how Howe got the idea to gather pallets from local businesses and paint the portrait below of Miguel Angel Jimenez, which was a gift for his girlfriend, Jess, who is the golf fan of the two. The Most Interesting Man in Golf is her favorite player.

“She thinks he’s just the most exciting player to watch,” he said. “He’s got his own style and is very charismatic. He also shows that he knows how to have a good time.”

HOW IT'S MADE

“First I collect the pallets from local businesses around my area. I take the pallets to pieces and then fill in the gaps with the spare pieces off the back.”

“I then sand the whole thing down and either paint it or stain it, repeating the sanding and staining until I get the look I want.

“The stencils I use are all cut out of paper by hand. The amount of layers I’ll use depends on how much detail I want in the picture. The Jimenez piece is five layers and probably took me 12 hours to stencil and make the pallet up.”

“I did this Jimi Hendrix piece, which was 9 layers and took me over 30 hours just to cut the stencils and spray on the canvas.”